French President Francois Hollande called on Friday for the immediate release of two French journalists who have gone missing in war-torn Syria.

"I demand that these journalists be freed immediately," Hollande told reporters in Japan, where he is currently on a tour, without mentioning the names or affiliation of those missing.

The U.N. force in the Golan Heights was thrown into disarray Thursday after Austria withdrew its troops and two peacekeepers were injured as Syrian government and rebel fighters battled for a border crossing.

Peacekeepers from the Philippines and India were wounded by mortar shrapnel as the Syrians fought for the strategic crossing, according to diplomats.

The European Union announced Thursday it will give another 400 million euros ($527 million) in humanitarian aid to help Syria and neighbor countries cope with increased refugee numbers as the bloody conflict deepens.

"The Syrian crisis is the most dramatic humanitarian situation in the last decade," European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said.

The elderly father of Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad was freed on Thursday, nearly three weeks after his abduction by gunmen, a security source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Muqdad's "father was released at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT), near his home in the province of Daraa" in southern Syria, the source said.

The United States is evaluating information received from France which Paris has billed as proof that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, a U.S. official said Thursday.

"I can confirm for you that we have received the information from the French," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, after French officials said they had evidence that sarin gas had been used in Syria.

Jordan gave a "final warning" to Syria's ambassador Thursday that he would be declared persona non grata if he continues to insult the kingdom, in a sign of growing tensions between the neighbors.

"Syrian Ambassador Bahjat Suleiman has violated all diplomatic norms through his condemned behavior and statements against Jordan," Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told state-run Petra news agency.

Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad reclaimed control of the central village of Dabaa on Thursday, Syrian state television said, a day after the army and Hizbullah captured a rebel bastion.

"Our heroic armed forces have secured and stabilized the town of Dabaa, north of Qusayr," the broadcaster said.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called for national reconciliation with Gaza's Hamas rulers on Thursday, after the swearing-in of a new government in the West Bank.

"I want to overcome the obstacles on the path to... establishing an independent Palestinian state," he told the first meeting of the new government headed by prime minister Rami Hamdallah.

Jordanian border guards on Thursday foiled an attempt to smuggle a large haul of weapons from Syria into the kingdom, the army said.

"The border guards arrested a group of people at dawn on Thursday as they tried to smuggle a large amount of weapons from Syria into Jordan," state-run Petra news agency quoted an army statement as saying.

Some 200 Russian Islamists who back North Caucasus insurgents are fighting in Syria for al-Qaida, the head of the Russian security service (FSB) said Thursday, Russian news agencies reported.

"The fact that around 200 fighters from Russia are fighting on the side of the Caucasus Emirate under the flag of al-Qaida and other related structures provokes concern in Russia," the head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov said at an international security forum in the central Russian city of Kazan.